It started by transmitting data via telegraph in 1916
to help sell bi-planes to military customers in Washington, D.C. Then,
as B-17s darkened the skies over Europe during World War II, computer
technologies advanced almost as quickly as aviation science. On one front,
electronic methods developed to break codes changed forever the way we
transmit information. On another, the ability of the computer to store
and process large quantities of data pioneered early guidance systems
and helped process change data as bombers streamed from hangar doors.

Postwar breakthroughs

After the war, the Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft
missile was the first Boeing product designed with the aid of a computer.
This was the 7-foot-tall analog Boeing Electro-Mechanical Computer that
required 3,000 vacuum tubes to drain the heat it generated in its 11-by-24-foot,
dust-free, temperaturecontrolled room.

"Using this machine, a problem that would have taken
100 engineering labor-months can be handled in about two hours' running
time," claimed a poster.

Boeing heritage companies also were breaking new ground
in the new science of electronic data storage, transmission and processing.
In 1950, the McDonnell Aircraft Company replaced its punch card equipment
with IBM card-programmed calculators and, in 1955, placed the largest-ever
order for analog computers for IBM 650s and installed two IBM 701s, the
first commercially available electronic computer.

Engineers at North American's Autonetics division developed
America's first computerized navigation system and, in 1955, sent the
first solid-state computer into flight for the Navaho missile guidance
system. McDonnell's McAuto, formed in 1960, supported computer-assisted
design and company business functions and had one of the largest online
data-collection systems in the United States.

First Webs woven

The first Boeing Web was spun for NASA and the moon-landing
program during the 1960s and early 1970s. Boeing provided mission support
and staff for the Saturn V moon rocket at Huntsville, Ala., Kennedy Space
Center, Fla., and NASA headquarters, Washington, D.C. To meet this communications
challenge, George Stoner, vice president and general manager of the Boeing
Space Division, established the "Blue Network."

"We've
all got to read from the same sheet of music in real time," Stoner said
in a 1969 interview.

As many as 160 NASA and Boeing managers located in
Washington, D.C., Huntsville, Cape Kennedy, Houston, Seattle and New Orleans
met "virtually" at the same time to collaborate and solve Apollo-Saturn
engineering issues.

Meanwhile, North American's Autonetics developed integrated
technologies for the Boeing-built Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic
Missile. This was the first government contract to use micro-electronic
integrated circuits in a major defense program. In addition, the Minuteman
program demonstrated how electronic communications could link human controllers
and missile defense systems around the country. In 1965, North American's
Autonetics linked several computers together to demonstrate the capabilities
of multiple systems in a command and control situationthe birth of network-centric
operations.

New ways of doing business

"Marketing and performing computing services involves
a whole new way of doing business," said Boeing President T. Wilson in
1970, at the formation of Boeing Computer Services.

During the next decade, BCS supported several different
systems, and each computing system used different access methods and protocols
(ways to communicate). By the 1990s, technology had progressed so that
the local area networks and wide area networks within Boeing were integrated.
Finally, the manufacturing, engineering and business systems could communicate
using common protocols.

Boeing was using Computer-graphics Aided Three-dimensional
Interactive Applications and Define and Control Airplane Configuration/
Manufacturing Resource Management to cut manufacturing costs and improve
airplane quality. But at first, these processes required thousands of
dedicated lines at great cost to the company.

Boeing worked with IBM so that dedicated network environments
were eliminated and workers could easily move their laptops between locations.
By 1996 the Boeing Intranet had become an enterprisewide utility.

"It saved millions of dollars," Farricker said.

To maintain security and provide remote access for
employees, partners and suppliers, Boeing established its security perimeter
where Boeing proxy servers filter and monitor external World Wide Web
access.

The secure perimeter enabled other vital virtual office
services, including Web conferencing. The

evolution of the public Internet, high-speed Internet access and virtual
private networks allowed reliable access to the Boeing network from almost
anywhere, at any time.

On March 23, 1999, Boeing implemented the Virtual Office program. According
to the program overview, "removing the impediments of time and space for
Boeing employees is a desirable goal, critical to the company's success."